


Take It From Me, You Don't Wanna Know How I Got Here

by BlueJay16



Series: Take It From Me... The Series^TM [1]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: And is a little sentient, F/F, F/M, Gen, Kinda set place in the bayverse movies but im pulling shit from all the other tf medias, M/M, Oh, That was really cool, The All Spark did some real freaky shit, This.... is an AU, and I like the way that Transformers Prime had data pillars, cause bayverse is kinda shit, everybody lives au, it's very sentient, that's all I'm saying on this for now.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2020-02-10
Packaged: 2020-06-26 14:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19770349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueJay16/pseuds/BlueJay16
Summary: In less than 24 hours, you too can experience emotional whiplash, head trauma, and alien robots!OR: They're just trying to be normal teenagers in this, the year of our lord 2019. They don't know what they did to deserve this.





	1. That's Lovely

**Author's Note:**

> Hello. I'm Back On My Bullshit. 
> 
> A Little Background: I first started writing transformers fanfic in the Rules List format (y'all know the one), and featured two characters, sisters, who were just kinda there. The focus was on the teens of the base, and I thought it was cool. 
> 
> Then someone asked, "How did the sisters even *get* there in the first place?" 
> 
> I started writing this back when I was in 6th grade and still very much a baby. I'm going into college now, and yknow what? I'm so excited I'm revamping these characters and writing about them again. All thanks to the 2018 Bumblebee movie. 
> 
> Please treat this well! Leave kudos! *Please*, for the love of god, please comment on things I can improve upon. It always helps! 
> 
> Thanks, and enjoy the show.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gods heard your wish to be normal and has decided to ignore it for the time being. Maybe when they're feeling nicer, they'll grant it.

****

Rocky’s head hurt. 

She had fallen asleep on her keyboard, it seemed. The monitor flashed an angry red, alerting her to an ‘imminent data purge’. Whatever that meant. 

Unbothered, she hummed a tuneless melody as she shut the laptop’s screen. Her hands rubbed away any remaining fatigue from her eyes with an apathetic huff — she really needed to get more sleep — and her fingers tugged insistently at her disobedient locks, goading them back into their normal hazelnut curls.

Data purge…?

Reopening her laptop, the alert reappeared with the same indignant  **DATA PURGE IMMINENT** warning plastered across the foreground. Oddly enough, the pop-up occupied the entire screen. No tab out, no minimizing. No escape. Confused, the brunette tapped the spacebar. Then, she tapped it again. With growing concern, she began to rapidly hammer at the now thoroughly abused key.

The only notable change was the baffling lack of one.

Eh?

**DATA PURGE IMMINENT**

**PROCEED?**

**\-- >> YES** **> NO**

Rocky wearily pressed the right arrow, hitting the enter button only once she realised the action had genuinely moved the cursor. 

_ Eh? _

**DATA PURGE CANCELED.**

**CONTINUE FROM PREVIOUS SESSION?**

**\-- >> YES** **> NO**

Rocky muttered quietly, sparing one last disgruntled thought for the abnormal awakening before tapping the enter key with a small flourish of her fingers.

It was likely supposed to seem elegant and graceful, but it came out far too drowsy and unsure to be either.

The computer rebooted with the muted hum of its fans kicking on, and she rose from her swivel chair  with a contented click of her tongue. A techie is her.

Muffled yelling echoed from beneath the floorboards.

She grabbed her phone from where it lay on the wooden desk, opening spotify with the practiced ease of familiarity. A playlist of 80s rock jam pulled her through her morning routine from one earbud; the wire strung around her neck like jewelry. The second piece hung limply at her side, soundless. Clothes, bathroom, pack her bag with a notebook, pencil and her laptop.

Her morning routine wasn’t exactly a lengthy one.

Halfway down the stairs, she reopened the schoolbag with a frustrated grimace and shut down her laptop.

A techie? Maybe.

Retentive?

Nope.

Now at ground floor, Rocky was fully capable to ogle the household’s chaotic-neutral nature.

Some kid zoomed past her mid sob, a lumbering oldie (relatively old, that is. He seemed to be in his early twenties) close behind and gaining quickly. A screaming match was taking place in the room over between two equally high-pitched voices, the one philosophical narcissist debated something with his best friend, (who had a crush on him, poor guy) a girl sat in the corner looking uncannily calm and a picture of Jesus Christ hung off-kilter on the far wall, gazing down in disappointment at the abominations his father had created.

If a god truly did exist, Rocky thought, they were not a benevolent one.

Jade sat in the middle of it all, a phone in one hand and a fork in the other. In front of her lied a half-eaten pop tart. Upon seeing the nonplussed brunette, she held up the remains invitingly.

“Thanks,” She murmured, splitting the remaining half in two and taking the larger portion, “How are you dude?” 

“I wanna die.” Jade groaned around her mouthful, “I gotta fuckin’ test today bro. I wanna lenny myself.” 

“Aw c’mon, don’t be like that,” Dylan mumbled, appearing from who-knows-where to snatch the meager remains of the pop tart from Jade’s hand, popping (heh) it into his mouth with an unconcerned wave towards her protests. “It’s just a math test, cool down.”

“‘It’s just a math test’,” She mocked, arms suddenly crossed, “Yeah, as if you know jack shit about the innumerable hardships of a math class.  _ Mr. Math Genius. _ ” 

“Sounds like a superhero name.” Dylan grunted. He took the opportunity that was Jade’s unhappy floundering to relocate his hat onto her head. Rocky rolled her eyes, and, just to be sure they got the message, a long-suffering sigh followed it.

“If you need me to program your calculator,” Rocky started, knocking against the table, “I’m your girl.” 

“I’ll keep it in mind when I’m stuck in the principal’s office for cheating.” Jade replied, unmoving. She was normally late anyways, seeing as she was close to aging out of the system and was treated as a secondary counselor for the kids. It’s not exactly like she did that much, but she did have the title, and it would be simply out of character not to use it to her advantage. 

Dylan and Rocky left shortly after that, opposed to being caught in the little kid breakfast traffic. They entered Dylan’s broken down car, seconds away from departing when someone rapped on the window and a muffled voice filtered through the glass.

“Hey, can I catch a ride?” Rocky was vaguely aware of the individual’s identity, but the only concrete information came from a few passing words Anna had muttered beneath her breath — the rest was hearsay and wandering rumours. They were the  _ new kid _ , the new unfortunate soul to end up in the house. And they were  _ weird _ . Anna had said something about trauma, from before they were in the system? Rocky would be far less likely to accept it as the truth if it weren’t for the new kid’s downright… exotic nature. It didn’t help that her friends either knew just about as much, or less.

“Sure,” Is what Dylan said, out of politeness. ‘No’, is what he thought, uncaring of societal norms. “Hop in…”

“Sky.” They chirped, opening the door and getting in. Rocky and Dylan shared a look, conversing through the language of eyebrow twitches and subtle glances.

_ Is that their name, or…? _

_ I don’t know dude, how the hell am I supposed to know? _

_ Maybe they noticed something weird about the sky? _

_ Maybe. _

_ … _

_ It’s their name, isn’t it. _

_ Yeah, it’s their name. _

_ What kind of fucking name is that? _

_ You’re asking me? _

_ Fair. _

“Thanks for the lift man.” They interrupted. 

“It’s Dylan.” 

“I know.” 

Rocky shifted uncomfortably in her seat. 

“So,” She started, trying her best to fill the awkward silence in the car, “How’d you end up here, Sky?” 

“Court order.” They replied, “You gonna put on some music, or..?” 

Dylan scrambled to turn on the radio, raising the volume when it was too low to fill the stretching silence.

The rest of the ride was spent entirely in the white noise of ‘this week’s greatest hits’.

At least Despacito wasn’t one of them. 

~.~.~.~

Shit just kept on getting weirder and weirder with these guys, huh? 

Will worried his lip, glancing over the readings once, then twice, then thrice. He stopped himself midway through a fourth, calling out to a nearby soldier.

“Hey, kid.” He didn’t seem too young, but being a high-ranked officer had its perks. “Call Prowl for me. I think I got something here.” Hah. Think. No, if  _ only _ there was a possibility this wasn’t a total disaster just waiting to happen.

The soldier nodded curtly, and rushed off to the nearest phone. Will turned back to the monitor with a heavy sigh.

Wyoming, huh?

Who the fuck lives in Wyoming?

…

Apparently, not good, law-abiding citizens.

“Sir?” The kid asked, pulling him from his musings. “Prowl needs to talk to you.”

He held out the phone with an apologetic glint in his eyes. He took it, and, with great reluctance, placed it against his ear.

Before he could even get a word in, Prowl immediately announced “Someone hacked into NEST last night.”

Oh, goody.

He blinked in surprise.

“Uh.” He started wittily, “Well, uh, who was it, then?”

“The individual used a computer registered to one Rochelle Edmee Declouette, and the hack took place in Wyoming. Red Alert is blowing a gasket about all this. What was it you’ve found?” 

He clicked his tongue into the receiver. “We got an energon reading. One closely linked to the Allspark.”

Complete silence from the other side.

“Are you sure?” Prowl responded finally.

“Positive.”

More unsettling silence, and then, a very terse “Thank you.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly-

Click.

He had hung up on him.

With a petulant pout, he put down his phone as well.

“Sir?” The kid asked, “Everything ok?” 

“Everything’s peachy kid.” Will replied evenly, “Watch that screen — if anything happens, and I mean  _ anything _ , you call me, capiche?” The kid nodded, sitting at the seat with his eyes set diligently on the monitor in front. The older man sighed, running a calloused hand through his cropped raven hair. 

Out of all the times for the Allspark to show up. 

_ Out of all the fucking times for the Allspark to show up. _

He wasn’t young anymore. Between the stress lines across his forehead, the bags under his eyes or the simple fact that he called everyone else except his superiors ‘kid’, it was fairly obvious. No, he wasn’t young anymore, but he could still  _ help _ , damnit. Be there for his friends, his comrades. That was why he worked his ass off every day at the communications division, with less tech than a museum of prehistory and more coffee than a Starbucks warehouse.

Sometimes, Will wished that his sector had a slightly larger budget, but that required higher funding and the bureaucrats would rather be invaded by the ‘Cons than spend another dime on the military.

Shaking his head, he pushed the thoughts away as he exited the room. Well, it was off with him. Off to go deal with the new, wonderful problem that was causing everyone grief.

Sometimes, Will wished he was younger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You must be wondering, "Dude, why did you repost a chapter?" Because!! I have someone editing them for me! 
> 
> This wonderful person, who I will be referring to as Noel, has so nicely asked/I asked (I guess it was a mutual ask, lol), to edit this work! So I will be reposing the old chapters, and everything else from now on will have been edited before hand. 
> 
> I'm honestly super pumped. I'm just now getting around to it, because, uggh, college move in has been Rough for this guy, and it's been really fucking me up. 
> 
> Now it's over though! The plan is to have lots of back log, that way I can not worry about having to write a whole chapter on top of school work and rehearsals. 
> 
> Being a musical theater major is rough.


	2. Somedays... You Are The Computer Virus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ah to be young and foolish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Hey! Good Evening from... the e h side of the united states. 
> 
> ADHD is great because I totally forgot about this. Yeehaw. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who commented on the last chapter! I tried my best to fix things up and implement some advice that was given to me (which was hard, cause editing is NOT my strong suit), but I did try!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this!

“My computer’s acting funny.”

One of her friends cast her a  _ look _ as they sat down at one of the cafeteria’s less filthy tables, trays in hand. A blonde to her left made a noncommittal sound that positively  _ reeked  _ of passive aggressiveness, and another laughed airily to her right.

“Have you tried turning it on and off again?” The comedian asked, opening up some pop tarts she had bought for breakfast. It was lunch, and she was eating the crispy confections instead of a meal. Rocky reached a hand over to grab one from the bag, contemplating it briefly as she glanced between it and the spaghetti on her plate.

Just spaghetti. No sauce. Sauce was for the first three and a half people in line, the rest of the underprivileged student body would simply have to mourn their unfortunate timing in the lunch rush. Either that or curse loudly at the person that had skipped them.

She took a bite from the pop tart.

“Oh my god, thank you. Thank you so much,” the african american deadpanned lowly, “how could I ever repay you for such  _ invaluable _ advice?”

They shrugged, a sickly sweet smile pulling at their lips. “Buy me more pop tarts?”

Rocky snorted, turning back to the culprit of her troubles — it was dignifying those kinds of questions with responses that led to arguments; she didn’t want that today. Today was a good day. Very chill, but pleasantly warm temperature-wise, nothing big or abnormal or weird. Nothing that could possibly turn today into a bad day. She was with her friends, eating lunch. Today was a good day.

It only made perfect, cruel, ironic sense that then, in that very moment that she thought that very thought, the universe would come together and collectively decide that  _ fuck you Rochelle, you can’t have good things. _

“Hey, Rocky?” Sky’s voice startled her out of her thoughts from behind — she hadn’t even heard her approach. “Can I talk to you about something?”

The teenager in question spun in her seat, craning her neck to lock eyes with the ninja behind her. An evaluating glance roamed their body.  Thin, worryingly so, but then again not a single soul in the Anna household was healthy. Deep blue and misty at the edges, their eyes were reminiscent of a winter morning’s frigid sky, sharply contrasting tanned skin and long strands of auburn hair. The t-shirt they donned was simple and white, short-sleeved and too small. The jeans were a faded blue and roughed up at the knees — they would’ve been in-fashion if they weren’t also stained a vague crimson around the shins.

In conclusion: um.

Well, Rocky was having a hard time with that part.

She shrugged with a feigned nonchalance, rising from her seat with an air of indifference even as her friends glanced at each other in the wake of Sky’s appearance.

“What’s up?” Her table was at least three friend groups behind now, but she could still feel the stares on her back. She disregarded them with an uncomfortable fidget. Sky bit their lip as they looked around, a shifty edge to their glances.

“Have you ever done something bad?” They blurted out suddenly. Rocky blinked in surprise, then formed an ‘o’ with her mouth as she nodded in understanding.

“Hey, no one here’s gonna judge you if you’ve trespassed or stolen from some dump once or twice. Most of- no,  _ all  _ off the older kids in the house’ve done it at  _ least  _ once.” An eye roll interrupted the explanation, “It’s practically a rite of passage by now, like it or not.”

Sky offered a small smile at the condolence, “I wasn’t talking about that, but thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.” They shifted their weight, their smile dropped, “But I was thinking more on the lines of involving human rights bad.”

Rocky let her smile melt off, too. 

“You didn’t _kill_ _anyone_ , did you?”

“No!” They yelled, “No, Jesus, Rocky. Christ no!” 

“Chill.” She replied, a smile returning. She gestured vaguely, “Continue.” 

“I mean, like, like-” They started, stumbling to a stuttering stop as their speech slowed down and their volume lowered.

“Like hiding from the government bad.” The hispanic teen finished, voice barely a whisper. Rocky nodded, shrugged, and then: “I mean,” She stopped, gauging the seriousness of the conversation, then continuing. “I, personally, don’t think you’ve lived until the government has to hunt you down for one reason or another.” She smiled as she patted Sky on the arm, “Besides, I, at the very least, have got your back.” 

“Thank you.” Sky said, smiling. The attempt at lightening the mood had certainly been appreciated, but now the tanned teen was contemplating their choice of friends. “That was it from me. You said your computer’s acting weird?” Not exactly their place to judge though, considering. Not after…

Well.

Was Rocky saying something?

“...ong were you listening in on our conversation? Yeah it is, and I don’t remember what I did to make it do that.” She discreetly scratched her head, shoving her hands into her pockets once the motion left her feeling too vulnerable. “It might’ve been porn? But I have a different computer for that.” 

“Ok,” Sky held out their hands, “One,  _ ew _ . I did  _ not  _ wanna hear about the fact that you have another computer just for fucking  _ porn _ . Two, couldn’t you contain a virus from a porn site?” 

“Yeah.” She responded easily, “Those are different. Those change files, corrupt files, generally make the computer harder to deal with — that kinda stuff, y’know? This is more along the line of ‘My computer is glitching and weird little symbols keep appearing but I don’t fucking know what to do about it’.” 

“Yikes. Good luck with that.” 

“I thought you were going to help me?” 

“Nah,” Sky said, pushing a stray hair from their face, “I just like knowing about the drama.” They grinned, pinching Rocky’s cheek playfully. “Thanks for talking. See ya.” And with that, Sky was gone. As suddenly as a car crash.

Rocky clicked her tongue. 

“Yo! Rocky! What was that?” The yell came from behind her, but she didn’t make any move to respond. She didn’t move as her friend neared, slowing to a stop beside her. She didn’t move as a concerned hand landed on her shoulder. She didn’t, because answering the question?

Um.

Well, Rocky was having a hard time with that part.

  
  
  


~.~.~.~

Will had a headache. 

Caught in the center of the human traffic, Red Alert losing his grip on sanity, and Prowl constantly  _ talking _ , talking over him, her, them, us,  _ everyone, _ he could feel his calm draining further and further away as it slipped through his fingers.

“...said the hacker came from  _ Wyoming _ , of all places…”

“All I want to know is how they got in!”

“...Did you hear what happened to Amanda? John had a fucking restraining order after that…”

“Yo, does Will seem a bit… quiet, to you-”

“HEY!” He yelled, pushing himself from the desk he sat at.

You’d hear it if someone blinked.

“Thank you. While I’m  _ overjoyed _ that everyone is passionate about our new problems, I have yet to hear a possible solution. We have two conundrums on our hands; the hacker and the Allspark. What are we gonna do about the hacker?”

Someone blinked a few feet to his left. He knew, because he’d heard it. 

And then, the silence broke. Because then, Red Alert spoke.

“We should probably detain them.” He stated, meekly.

“So the police?”

Prowl straightened minutely, refocusing on his tablet as he replied. “It is illegal, and can be punished in a court of law. Therefore, yes.  _ The police _ .”

“But wouldn’t we want a good hacker on our defense team?” Someone asked, “They could help Red Alert-.” 

“No. Absolutely not.” The mech forced out, his eyes narrowing in his holoform, “I don’t trust anyone to go into those systems, and they  _ are _ secure.”

“But-” 

Will took a deep breath, “Ok, so that’s done then. What about the Allspark?” 

“We’ll go and retrieve it.” Optimus spoke, his first words since this simply awful meeting had started, “Before someone else does.” 

Will nodded, smiling softly. “Perfect. That’s exactly what we needed to hear. Are we arresting the hacker?” 

“I believe we should.” Cold and brusque, as with all things Prowl. Except when Jazz was there. Hmm.

Prowl shut off his tablet and his facial features darkened with passive determination.

And, with that, the meeting was over. 

  
  


~.~.~.~

And, with that, the school day had ended.

‘That’ of course being the bell, but some would argue instead that it was the end of Mr. Johnson’s rant. An even smaller minority referred to them as ‘lectures’. 

Rock just laughed good-naturedly whenever someone made that same joke again — it was almost a running gag by now.

She never did figure out what the fuck was wrong with her laptop, but at this point the glitches had lost their novelty and deplorability of both: it didn’t matter too much to her anyways.

Rocky reached Dylan’s car relatively briskly, but it was upon arrival that she realized with a grimace that she was, in fact, last. Both Sky and Dylan were lounging in the front, with the hispanic’s teen’s feet kicked up awkwardly onto the dashboard, their hands behind their head.

It seemed rather painful, to Rocky, but at last Dylan was sitting semi-composed reading a book in the driver’s seat.

She hoped it was for theatrics.

Dylan, calmly reading a book of his own volition?

She really,  _ really _ hoped it was for theatrics.

Rocky grunted quietly as she opened the door to the backseats, grimace stretching further as she realized they had dumped their bags not into the trunk — no, that was for civilized folk — but instead opted for her seat instead.

She grumbled lowly as she circled the car.

Today was not a good day.

Wrenching open the door and entering, Rocky ‘accidentally’ kicked the seat in front of her, jolting its occupant. Whoops. Oh no.  _ The horror. _

Sky’s petulant “Hey!” was cut off as Dylan flicked the page of his disturbingly large novel, “Took you long enough. We’ve been sitting here for what… fifteen, twenty minutes?”

“Twenty-two.” Sky chipped in, grave as a corpse.

“The bell rang twelve minutes ago you assholes.”

Sky looked at their wrist.

“Twenty-three, now.”

They didn’t own a watch.

“Whatever ya say. I’m hungry though, wanna get some food?”

“Yeah, I guess.” 

“Let’s go to Crux.” Sky piped up. Dylan huffed.

“ _ Crux?”  _ Rocky mumbled, “That’s past the  _ rez _ , Sky.”

“I’m aware.”

“Home it is, then.” Dylan spoke up.

“Nah, wait, c’mon! Trust me on this one, okay? We should go to to Crux!” Sky had dropped the laid back façade; Their hands were grasped in pleading.

Dylan shot them a leveling look, glancing back at the page number before closing it with ennui.

“Can you drive?” 

“Not legally.” Unabashedly, unhesitatingly. They had chirped it as if noting the pleasant weather.

Silence reigned long and dreary between the two. 

Dylan sighed, delicately placing his book on the dashboard before pushing open the driver’s door and exiting.

He gestured vaguely at the wheel, then pointed to Sky.

They wasted no time, bodily dragging themselves over the gear stick and clutter with a hissed “Yes!” as Dylan rounded the bonnet and opened the door.

The drive was uneventful — long and slow and completely lifeless — and boredom had long since set in for the trio. Rocky was gazing sullenly at the passing farmland, eyes tracking the barns and silos as they whizzed by. Because the drive was uneventful, and it stayed that way right up until the point in which-

_ It. _

In which they saw  _ it _ .

A glimmering silver beacon crested upon the top of an arid green hill, momentarily blinding her as the reflective surface caught the sun briefly. Tall and slim and curvaceous, alluring to her in the way light would be to a moth. Rocky leaned forward, reaching a hand out to the window.

Bright blue neon lights glared brighter in response.

“You two are seeing this, right?” She asked. Sky nodded, concerningly raptured as the car drifted into the opposite lane. 

“We gotta go check it out.” They uttered, awestruck.

Dylan grew increasingly panicked as the car now hurtled forward entirely within the incorrect lane.

“Fucking eyes on the road, Jesus! And  _ no! _ We  _ absolutely do not _ ‘gotta check it out’! In fact, I believe the best course of action would be to _ turn the fuck around  _ and  _ head home! _ ” He grabbed the steering wheel as he leaned across the emergency break to wrench the car back into the side of the road without potential oncoming traffic. “What the actual  _ fuck  _ is  _ wrong _ with you?!”

Still entranced, Rocky mumbled an agreement with Sky.

“It’s  _ my  _ car.” Dylan ground out, irritated and openly hostile.

“And  _ I  _ am currently the driver.” With a triumphant smirk, Sky pulled the multi-ton vehicle into a disgustingly illegal U-turn as the tires squealed in protest, shifting first into third, then fourth, then skipping into sixth gear as rubber burnt into thick black clouds behind them.

Distantly, Rocky wondered if Sky did that often.

Less distantly, Dylan shrieked in non-verbose objection.

The car screeched to a suitably in-theme sudden halt as Sky slammed on the brakes, pulling into an unpaved gravel alley between two similarly deep ditches Rocky hadn’t even noticed in the blur of a minute ago.

“Dudes, Jade is gonna be  _ pissed  _ that she missed this today.” Sky exclaimed happily, Dylan rolled his eyes. 

“We’re gonna get up there and it’s gonna be nothing. Just watch.” He grumbled lowly, but Sky and Rocky were quick to write him off. 

The national road was nowhere to be seen now, long left behind as the graded path led them further and further from civilization and closer and closer to  _ it _ . Eventually, Sky parked the car and turned off the engine — in the middle of the road, but they had larger concerns than the exact population of  _ nobody _ that frequently traveled this route. Rocky shoved the door open first as the car slowed to a stop, disembarking before anyone else as she stumbled onto moving ground. Wait, no,  _ she  _ had been moving. So what if the car hadn’t fully stopped yet, it was right there and she could almost reach out and  _ touch it _ .

“ _ YOU BETTER NOT FUCKING TOUCH IT-” _

“ _ I’M GONNA FUCKING TOUCH IT!” _

_ “ROCKY, IF YOU ACTUALLY TRY-” _

It was three times her height, it was tipped over, it was a gleaming chrome with shining accents of swirling celeste light that curled and branched like the roots of a tree. Layers of the silver material created sharp tips and blade-like edges that almost seemed too immaculate to be human-forged. Etched into the mirror-like metal were fluid designs that flowed like water and repeated like lettering — it was-

What the  _ fuck _ was it?

Her hand reached out, as delicate as it was bold, and her fingers brushed the warm, softly vibrating surface- 

She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew it was  _ alive _ -

The red cap, almost like a button, tantalizingly within reach, so she  _ did _ reach, and she  _ pressed- _

_ እኔ ሁሉንም አውቃለሁ። _

_ לאָזן מיר מנוחה _

_ என் மக்கள் பெரும் துன்பங்களைக் கண்டிருக்கிறார்கள் _

_ អ្នកជានរណា _

_ ເຈົ້າຍັງ ໜຸ່ມ _

_ ეძებთ ცოდნას _

**_મને મદદ કરો_ **

**_Օգնիր ինձ_ **

**_నాకు సాయం చెయ్యి_ **

**_ביטע_ **

_ Help me _

W̤͙̠̝̭̋̏̓ͧ͟͠h̴̵̴̢̰̪̯̲̺̰̘̦̀̑ͥ̓̏́̐ͮ̔ͧ̋̃ͦi͐̓̃ͧ́ͪ̎ͧ̏̉͒̂͏̬̩̥̫̱͓͕̬̘͓͕̱̱̕t̴͓̖̱̼̤͙̙͙̺͈ͨ͑̏ͧ̎ͧ͗̏͌ͤ͘͘͠ͅȅͣ̓̂ͮ͏̡҉͈̳̱͖͈̱̤̩͎̼̫̺͕̜̥̺̝͍͠.̹͈̹̤̱̹̖̀ͧ̇̅̒̃ͦ̓̿͛̽̉ͧ̾̎͟͝

  
  
  
  


W̸̳͍͔̖͇͕ͧ̏͋ͨ̑͑͆͠͝h͍͉̭͍̫̝̆͊ͥ͗ͥ̓̈́̾͗i̖̗͗͊͌̿̌̆t̩͈͕͍̍̿̂͂ͭ͊̈͢e̶̠͉̋̊̐̈́ͭ̒ͫ̏,̪͚̬͚̹͗̉ͮ ̼̟͖̲̦͕͔̠ͩ̽͗̈́̈́͐ͯͫe͕̠̟̣͋̑̍͌v̐ͣ҉̷̺̜̲̜͠e̡̝̻͈̣̜̝̳ͩ̌͒͡r͍͋̍́ͅy͖͔̌̃͊̈͒ͯ̒͋͢w̸̯̤ͭ̽̌ͣ͛̒ͣ͘h̶͖͙͕̦͎̮͙̥̝ͬ̍̇̎ͮͥ̽̔̒e̯̻̋͝r͉̙̲̫̊͒̔͗͆̄͡e̴̟̺ͥ̊ͤ.

W̶̹̟͔̯̊͐̂̈ͥͭh͖̖̖̜̞̲͔ę͑̑ͯ̓̚r̛̥̪̘ͣͣ͑͌̓e̳̫͓̒ ͯ̆ͤͧ͂ͮ͠ȁ̫̤̱ͭ̓̚m̥̻͒̈́̄̋̂̋͟ ̐̿̿ͭ͘I̛͚̜̦̭̞ͅ?̧͇̱̃

Rocky opened her eyes, blinking away the splotches of searing white as her senses returned. A loud ringing deafened her, and she flinched as her ears tuned back into reality.

“...y? …”

“...w… p, ro…!”

“...ky!”

“-ocky!”

“ _ ROCKY!” _

Dylan was shaking her vigorously at her shoulders, unrelenting as he yelled her name directly at her face.

“Ugh, shut _ up _ dude.”

Sky and Dylan shared a similarly exasperated glance before, in harmony, they screamed.

“ _ What the fuck, Rocky!” _

“What?”

Sky recovered first.

“Oh, nothing. Just the fact that you’ve been unconscious for the past half minute or so.”

“Eh?”

“The thing disappeared as soon as we looked away from it. One second, you were touching the thing, the next, you were seven feet away, convulsing,  _ thrashing on the fucking ground, _ and the one thirty seconds after that you’re asking us ‘what’. Somewhere between that time frame, it just.  _ Disappeared _ .” Dylan’s hands drew an imaginary rainbow into the air.

“What was that, anyway? Maybe it belonged to the people from the rez?” Sky piped up, weary.

“No… no, that did  _ not _ look Shoshone or Arapahoe in origin, that’s for sure.” Rocky murmured distractedly. Her eyes were unfocused — or rather, they were focused on the empty space where the artifact had once laid.

“Like you’d know.”

The negative space glared back.

“Shut up, D.”

“Can it, lovebirds.  _ We have a mystery to solve _ .” Sky cut in. 

“Lovebirds?!” Dylan screeched. Rocky held the deepest empathy for his poor vocal chords — today had been rough.

“No, they’re right.” Rocky interrupted.

Dylan gave her a scathing look.

“What? Wait, no-  _ about the mystery _ . We gotta solve it: we’re practically duty-bound, now.”

“We are  _ not _ practically duty-  _ Rocky what are you doing. _ ”

“Searching for the thing. It can’t have  _ just ‘ _ disappeared’. It’s gonna be hiding here somewhere; that‘s just how it works.”

“Rocky: what is it with you and making inadvisable, idiotic,  _ lamentable  _ decisions today?”

“It’s trendy right now- oh hey! I think I’ve found it!” She reached down to pick the object up. It was comparable to a pole; long and thin as its curved surface reflected a distorted image of a peering Rocky back at her. it seemed to be a perfectly shrunk replica of the metallic obelisk she had… had  _ conversed with _ .

A perfectly normal, one sided, multi-lingual and also possibly otherworldly conversation — what’s new?

“What? This is so freaky…” Sky mumbled. It was detached, as if the phrase held no meaning to them; or that perhaps it was simply something one was  _ obliged  _ to utter upon participation in these kinds of situations.

“Let’s bring it home.”

Ah, that was why.

Rocky stood contently as Dylan spluttered a list of approximately seventeen separate reasons as to why they couldn’t just ‘bring it home’. She couldn’t quite make out the specifics — her attention was held entirely by the downsized monument she cradled carefully in the palm of her hands. Every etch, every curve and every sculpted twist: they had all remained. The resizing had not affected the details in the slightest, they had simply made them a more gratifyingly challenging find.

She tilted her head. No, she wasn’t mistaken; she could see it if she squinted just so, twisted it right there, angled it away from the sun’s blinding glare — ‘Data Pillar’ was carved gracefully across the object’s shorter side in an elegant calligraphy.

That… wasn’t normal.

Nonetheless, she had a nagging hunch that nothing about their current situation defined ‘normal’.

Rocky blinked once, twice, then rubbed her eyes with her free hand. Sighing, she dropped her arm limply. “Hey dudes, let’s go.”

Dylan halted his frustrated rambling as he turned towards her with an exasperated clap of his hands.

“Thank you!  _ Let’s _ .”

“A wonderful idea, Rocky. You got a place to store that thing?” Sky asked.

“For fuck’s-  _ did you not hear any of my nineteen reasons-” _

Nineteen. To be fair, Rocky had expected to be slightly less accurate, so she commended herself silently as she interrupted the Dylan.

“My backpack’ll have to do.” She responded. Neither Sky nor Rocky paid any heed to Dylan; he was becoming the comic relief of their increasingly wack narrative. Distantly, Rocky wondered if a romantic partner would come included.

“To home, then.” Sky affirmed.

Dylan blinked, "Wait. What about Crux?" 

"Dude," Rocky started, "We found a giant metal thing that turned into a smaller metal thing.” Maybe it wasn’t time to mention her  _ pleasant  _ conversation to them just yet, she thought. “We gotta tell Jade. Forget Crux."

“...Fair.”

~.~.~.~

When Sky pulled them into the property, they had expected to be alone on the driveway — Dylan was the only individual in the household that had a driver’s license, after all.

Imagine their surprise, then, when they quickly noticed the plethora of black SUVs parked on their side of the road, along with a handful of sleek sports cars that seemed far outside the budget of anyone this side of the fucking county.

Military-esque vehicles were dotted around too, Rocky noted with no small amount of concern.

_ Shit _ .

“Do you guys  _ normally _ host car sales outside your house?” Sky asked, drumming her fingers on the car’s wheel as she glanced at the crowd of automobiles surrounding them. Dylan shook his head absently, “No, not at all. Ever.” 

Anna and Jade stood outside their idling car. Jade’s hair was put up into a ponytail, Anna’s arms were crossed. Beside them stood a tall black man with a cowboy hat donned and a slightly shorter Asian man next to him. Sky swallowed audibly. This time, Dylan exited first.

“I didn’t know you had such a large collection of nondescript four by fours, Anna. Since when?” He started smoothly as he shut the door behind him.

Anna’s glare deepened.

Okay, not so smoothly, then.

A mysterious migraine struck Rocky suddenly. She gasped softly as she rose a hand to massage her brow.

“You doin’ okay there?”

“No.”

“Kay, well, I’m getting out, so.” Sky huffed as they, too, exited uncomfortably. After a moment, the pain died down enough for Rocky to follow the others out — and just in time to hear the tail end of Anna’s furious beratement.

“-Crux is  _ two fucking hours _ away! What in  _ god’s name  _ possessed you to think that that would’ve been okay?! What if someone else needed the car?”

“Anna, this is  _ my car- _ ”

“Shut up Dylan! And you let Sky drive, too! Why?! She can’t even drive!”

The brunette kicked a rock away, muttering under her breath. “Yes I can.”

Anna’s glare slid to Sky. “Not _. Legally. _ ” She hissed.

Reaching the conversation, Rocky internally debated turning and walking away before Anna’s wrath interrupted her midway through. “And don’t even get me _started_ with _you_ , Declouette!” She screeched. If that hadn’t tipped Rocky off to the middle-aged woman’s unspeakable rage, nor the overheard conversation before it; the use of her last name certainly had. “Hacking into the _government?_ _Seriously?!_ Do you come close to _comprehending_ how much trouble you’re in young lady?”

Rocky blinked. Once. Twice. The outside world was suspiciously quiet. A glance around revealed that yep, everyone was staring. Wonderful.

“I did  _ what?” _

“Hacked into the government’s secure servers: the military branch. Or rather,  _ previously  _ secure.” The Asian man tacked on tersely, “Hello, I am commander Prowl. Rochelle Edmee Declouette, you have committed a federal offence, How do you plead?”

Rocky held up her hands in a vaguely placating gesture. Really, it was moreso an action of startled confusion. “Woah, there, dude! First of all, I get the right to a trial, and what about the Miranda Rights? Don’t you have to read those off to me? Second, I plead ‘fucking not guilty’, because I haven’t a  _ clue _ what’s going on!”

Jade, having just awoken from a shock-induced stupor, jolted suddenly before blurting “What the hell type of name is  _ Prowl?”  _ out.

Really, Jade?  _ That’s _ the first question that springs to your mind? Did you get a fucking concussion in the hour and a half we were gone?"

The man ignored them both. “Ms. Anna, if you would allow me to inspect the child’s computer for any proof.” It was a statement.

“Hey, wait a second-  _ I don’t consent to a search! _ ” She yelled.

“Too bad: I do. Get your laptops. That includes the one in your room.”

“You mean the one that runs so slow, the processor’s basically slag?” Rocky snorted, “Yeah, good luck getting  _ anything  _ done on that computer. And I’m not giving you my shit.” 

“We have probable cause.” Cowboy man said, “if you allow us to clear your name, however, we will soon be out of your hair." Rocky glared at the man, and Anna grinned smugly. 

"Laptop." She demanded, holding out her hands. Rocky took off her bag angrily, and ripped the electronic from it. After she shoved it into Anna’s waiting arms, she stomped into the house, muttering vaguely about ‘blackmail’. 

“Anna, you can’t just do this.” Dylan protested; Anna laughed sharply, unpleasantly. “Rocky broke a law.” She said, simply. “Honestly, I think she had it coming.” 

“Are you seriously telling me she deserves  _ this  _ right now?” Dylan’s eyes were narrowed.

“Why not?” She carried on, handing the laptop to Commander Prowl before facing Dylan again. 

Sky watched, then blinked slowly. 

This... might have been their fault. 

Just as they were about to say as much, an F-15 jet flew overhead. It was low enough to deafen the crowd. Sky flinched as she covered her ears. To himself, Dylan mumbled, “There aren’t any air bases nearby…” Rocky exited the house with a mix between confused stare and annoyed glare on her pale face. She opened her mouth, and then-

Something, something  _ happened _ . It was loud, left her ears ringing and her vision blank. She was on the ground, Rocky realized belatedly. How did she get there? Through the shrill static of blood rushing through her ears, a backdrop of yelled directions and screaming children dragged her back into consciousness. She looked around through bleary eyes and noticed people on the grass, hands covering their head, some in fetal positions.

Suddenly, another bright light; another loud noise. She felt herself flying briefly. In the moment of pure, uncontrolled flight, she thought about how much it was going to hurt when she hit the ground.

But before she did, her head met sharply with a rock — and for the second time that afternoon, the world lost its color and everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: Here is part two of the edited chapters! Once again, please thank Noel and their wonderful editing skills!


	3. Everyone Is Allowed One Hot Take Per Chapter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How many times will Rocky wake up with a headache? The world has no way of knowing, and she really doesn't want to keep waking up this way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I'm back! 
> 
> School is about to start up, and life is about to go Fuckin' Bonkers. All of a sudden I got something to do every weekend until I move in. Yeehaw. 
> 
> But! I'm gonna try to at least stay 2 chapters ahead, cause I actually want to have a finished work on my profile for once, so... yeah! That's been the life update. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter. I honestly enjoyed writing it haha.

Rocky’s head hurt. 

When she attempted to roll over off of her bed, she was met with more leather, which confused her, because her bed wasn’t leather. She groaned. 

“You functional little thing?” Came a voice up in front of her. She blinked, and attempted to say “what”, but nothing was leaving her mouth. The stranger laughed. 

“I figured. You hit your head pretty hard. You’re safe now though.” There was silence from him for a hot second, and he eventually said, “I’m Sideswipe by the way.” 

“What’s with you guys and weird names?” Rocky said, and Sideswipe laughed, pushing his bright red hair out of the way. 

“They’re nicknames.” He said, and Rocky left it at that. 

It was quiet for a moment longer until Rocky asked, “Where are we?” 

“On the interstate,” The man said, “You and your friends are an interesting bunch, you know that?” 

“And the other kids?” 

“Safe.” He said, “Still in Wyoming. I’ll be honest, I’ve never seen a caretaker release her kids so quickly.” Rocky snorted. 

“That’s Anna.” She mumbled, “I’m gonna go back to sleep.”

The guy didn’t respond, which Rocky thought was just fine. She rearranged herself on the seat, and, quite quickly, fell back asleep. 

  
  


~.~.~.~

“Rochelle?” 

She didn’t move. 

“Edmee?” 

Nothing. 

Dylan sighed, and quickly jabbed her side, causing her to sit up quickly and to reach out to smack him. He moved. 

“Get out of the car sleeping beauty. We’ve arrived.” When the indigenous teen said that, he moved away, and Rocky looked around to try to catch her bearings. 

“Is this Colorado?” She asked to no one in particular. Someone snickered next to her, but she chose to ignore it, and got out of the car. There, she was met with Sky, Dylan and Jade, all standing in a circle talking. Sky was the first to see her, and immediately started waving. 

“You’re alive!” They said, causing Rocky to wince. 

“Barely. Wish I wasn’t.” She mumbled, “Are we in Colorado?” 

“Sure are.” Jade replied. She seemed awfully chipper, “At the Air Force base. Isn’t it cool?” 

Rocky hummed. 

“I guess.” A group of soldiers walked past them, and Dylan put his arm around her. 

“If you’re worried about the hacking thing: Don’t. Prowl said that it seemed to have been a misunderstanding, and would just like to talk to you.” He said softly. Rocky nodded. 

“I wanna go back to sleep.” She mumbled, and Sky reached over and grabbed her hand. 

“No sleeping now. You hit your head  _ really  _ hard.” 

“Which,” Jade started, glaring to Sky, “Remind me to kick your ass later. I have a feeling this is your fault.” 

“You’d be right!” Sky immediately replied. Before anyone could say anything though, They were approached by the man in the cowboy hat, Prowl, and a few others that the group couldn’t recognize. 

“Glad to see that you are all doing well.” Prowl started, “If you will follow us, we will ask you some questions, and then you will go see the medics to make sure that you have not sustained any damage.” Sky was about to follow them when Dylan held out his hand. 

“Have we been detained?” He asked. One that Rocky didn’t recognize, and older man with greying blonde hair, turned around to look at them. 

“Putting it simply, yes.” He said, “But it’s more complicated than that.” 

“Then explain,” Jade said, Stepping from behind Dylan to place herself in front, “Cause we’re not doing anything until we get a better understanding of what’s going on.” 

Cowboy man cleared his throat, “Many of us here are not who we appear to be. You four have been exposed to this, however slightly, and this has put you at risk. We simply wish to understand what happened, and if there is no future threat, then you will go back home.” 

“To Wyoming?” Rocky asked, causing the man in the cowboy hat to smile slightly. 

“To Wyoming.” 

“Cool." She said, "Let's do this." Dylan stopped her, pressing his hand to her chest. 

"Wait a second!" He exclaimed, "We have a right to a lawyer right?" 

"Dylan," Rocky started patting his shoulder, "I don't think it matters anymore dude." 

So they followed along in silence, watching as the other soldiers moved and bustled about. Someone ran past them, almost hitting Rocky in the head again. Dylan moved her out of the way just before they did. He was about to say something when the army group in front motioned for them to stop. 

“Wait here for a bit.” Greying Guy said, and he walked into the building. Sky huffed, pushing their loosely curly hair away from their face. 

“I’m hungry,” They mumbled. 

“Bitch me too, the fuck.” This came from Jade, who immediately sat down on the dusty ground. Rocky closed her eyes and whined, Dylan’s arm still securely around her. 

“You doing ok Rocky?” He asked, watching her with concern. She nodded. 

“M’ head just hurts.” She replied, and he left it at that, rubbing her arm gently in comfort. Just as quickly as the man left, he was back, and motioned for the group to stand. 

“Alright, we’ll show you to the room, and then we’ll ask you some questions.” He said. Someone else then came from behind him, face drawn up into an angry glare. 

“After, which, you will all go directly to the mess hall and get something to eat.” At that, they were motioned to follow (but not after Jade let out a high pitched “But I don’t wanna eat military food!” Sky snorted, and the angry guy gave them a Look. It immediately shut them all up). 

  
  


~.~.~.~

He was living in a perpetual state of headache. 

It’s been all of ten minutes, and every single question they had asked Rochelle had been answered by another question. Prowl was currently pinching the bridge of his nose, while Jazz’s smile grew more and more thin. 

“Aiight Rochelle--.”

“Please just call me Rocky man--.”

“Just answer the question. How did you get into NEST’s systems?” He asked, tilting his head just so slightly to appear trustworthy. Optimus, at this point, had placed his head against the table in an attempt to lessen the amount of stimuli in the room. Rochelle pursed her lips, and then huffed. 

“I just gotta know if I’m gonna go to  _ jail _ if I answer that question.” She said, and this time, it was the Native American kid who threw his hands up in the air. 

“Will you  _ please _ just  _ tell  _ them?” He yelled, “We’re all collectively losing our minds, I’m hungry, I know you’re tired. Just…” He gestured vaguely, before shouting just as vaguely and throwing his arms out. It was silent for a very long time before Rochelle shifted a little in her seat. 

“It was an accident.” Rochelle supplied, and Red Alert narrowed his eyes. 

“Accident how?” He asked, now sitting down directly in front of her. She blinked. 

“I was fucking around with the coding on google, and I guess I just did one too many changes?” She shrugged, “I couldn’t recreate it even if I tried. All I know is I wake up and my laptop is being weird.” Red Alert’s eyes stayed narrowed, and he opened his mouth to say more, but Jazz immediately intercepted. 

“ _ Thank  _ you.” He said, “That wasn’t so hard was it?” Rochelle shook her head, and Lennox couldn’t help but notice how… young that motion made her. She was still a kid, not that much older than Annabelle. 

It made Lennox's chest hurt. 

"Alright," He said, stepping forward, "I think we got everything we needed. You guys go and get some food." 

"Ratchet, Jazz, please show them to the mess hall." Prowl said, "Thank you for your time. Prime, Lennox, Red Alert, with me." 

And the teenagers left. The asian kid and the hispanic one getting up immediately and running to the door in order to get out first. Rocky stayed there for a moment. 

“Will I… get in trouble?” She asked, and, really, she was just too sweet. Lennox shook his head. 

“Kid, if you’re speaking the truth, which it seems like you are, then the whole thing’s gonna be forgotten.” He said, giving her a genuine smile. She smiled back, and left the room to follow her friends. 


	4. How Many Teenagers Does It Take To Unpack A Situation? Technically 4, But One Does All The Talking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teens finally get to eat something. And There's More Unpacking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ughughughugh
> 
> School Succs... but its cool to be doing things i enjoy for once!
> 
> Please enjoy this I've been writing it in my intro to musical styles class cause I hate it!!

As much as Jade didn’t want to eat military food, she was actually really hungry. 

The Mongolian-American teen had effectively shoved almost half the contents of the food on her tray into her mouth, and Sky wasn’t much better. They were almost finished. Dylan was the only one who maintained a constant, not eating too much, but he was still eating. 

Rocky… wasn’t eating at all.

After swallowing a particularly large amount of food, Jade wiped her mouth with her arm and asked, “What’s up Rocky?” 

The african-american teen shrugged, eyes unfocused, “I’m not feeling too hungry.” Dylan gave her a look from the corner of his eye, and picked up a strawberry from his plate. 

“C’mon Rocky-girl,” He started, “You gotta eat something.” She pushed the strawberry away from her mouth, and Dylan shot Jade a worried look. The eldest teen rolled her eyes, and leaned over the table to feel Rocky’s forehead. 

“You sick or somethin’ computer wizard?” She asked, “I never knew it was possible for you to _not_ eat anything.” 

“I don't _feel_ sick.” Rocky retorted, smacking Jade’s hand away. Sky, who had been silent up until now, just nodded their head. 

“Yeah, that’s normal.” They said, “You did die after all.” 

The table went silent. 

The first person to make a sound was Dylan, who blinked a couple of times before clearing his throat. Rocky swayed a little where she sat, her face turning pale and almost a little green. Jade was the one who choked, and screamed, “She _what?!_ ”

“She died.” The fact that Sky could say this like it was no big deal was something that Dylan and Jade were going to have to talk to them about. They dug something from under their nails and flicked it away, “She’s ok _now_ though, her body just has to get used to herself again.” 

Rocky swallowed. 

“Ok, ok, pause.” Dylan held up his hands, dropping his fork as he did so, “We really don’t have time to unpack all of this right now, and frankly, I don’t have the brain cells to unpack all of this.” With that, Dylan stood up, grabbing Rocky’s arm as he did so, “C’mon girlie, Let’s go rest somewhere.” 

As they walked away, Sky reached over to take Rocky’s extra food, which earned the latinix an angry slap on the head.

“Hey!” They yelled, drawing some eyes towards them and Jade. The other just shoved them, face twisted in anger. 

“What the _hell_ was that?” She hissed, “Rocky doesn’t do well with death, and if you’re trying to scare her cause you think it’s _funny_ -.” 

“No!” Sky hissed back, “She really did die!” 

“How?” 

Sky blinked, “What do you mean by ‘How’?”

“I meant how did she die if she really did die.” Jade said. Her voice had dropped considerably, and no one was really watching the two of them anymore. Sky rolled their shoulders and took a deep breath. 

“You’ll keep a lid on it while I explain, right?” They asked, and Jade rolled her eyes. 

“I won’t make a scene, start explaining space cadet.” She demanded, and Sky smiled slightly. 

“Alright, so y’know how that fighter jet dropped a bomb on us?” 

~.~.~.~.~

“We’re lost.” Dylan finally said. He was practically carrying Rocky at this point, but she was too stubborn to try and admit that she needed help. Dylan turned around then, dragging Rocky along with him, when he ran face first into a wall. 

“Are you alright?” 

Nope, not a wall. A person. 

“Uh,” He looked up squinting a little in the light. The man he ran into was obviously from the military, solid, and looked like he’s killed at least ten people, “Yeah. Lost though.” 

The taller man grunted, and took a look at Rocky before shaking his head, “You’re part of that teenaged group? I’ll show you to the medbay.” In one motion, he had grabbed Rocky and held her against him like she was a baby. Dylan reached forward to try and grab her back, but the man had turned around then. 

“So are you the oldest?” He asked suddenly. Dylan shook his head. 

“That honor belongs to Jade,” He started, a fond smile playing on his lips, “I’ve been watching out for Rocky ever since she came to the home though.” The taller man nodded his head in understanding. 

“How’d you end up there?” He asked. Dylan’s face twisted into a grimace. 

“Mom died. She had been cut off from her family. No one wanted me.” It went silent after that as the two of them continued on. They didn’t talk again until they arrived at the medbay, the tall man easily walking in and announcing his presence. Someone else shouted back angrily. 

Dylan walked in. 

“-And don’t _shout_! You woke up the girl!” It was Greying Guy again, waving a wrench around angrily. Dylan’s eyes widened. 

“She would’ve had to wake up anyways.” Tall Man said dismissively. As he said this, he easily sat rocky down on the examination table and cupped her face gently. Greying Guy sighed dramatically, and looked to Dylan. 

“You’re Dylan Nez correct?” The native teen nodded, and the older man sighed, “I hate to put you in this position, but would you mind answering some questions about…” He turned to look at the young girl sitting on the examination table, almost falling asleep again, “...Rocky, was it?” Dylan nodded his head again. 

“Right, then go sit down as well, let me pull up your files.” He said, turning around and waving Dylan off. The teenager blinked twice before going and sitting next to Rocky. She immediately leaned against him. 

“Are you ok?” She asked suddenly. He huffed out a soft laugh. 

“I’m ok.” He said. He then reached up and rested an arm on her shoulder, “Are you ok though? You’ve been even more out of it since Sky let that bombshell drop in the eating… food… place.” Rocky snorted. 

“Nah I’m fine. Totally fine.” As she said this, her eyes started closing, and Dylan just sighed. 

“Alright.” To be _very_ honest, he didn’t believe her. She had a habit of shoving things deep until the sheer amount of repressed emotions overflowed. 

But Dylan didn't press it, and Greying Guy turned around to look at them anyways. 

"This shouldn't take too long. Just a quick look to make sure nothing's broken." He sighed heavily, and tapped a pen against his clipboard. 

"Dylan, how old are you and Rocky?" He asked, and Dylan shrugged. 

“I’m 17. Rocky’s 15.” There was silence and the scratching of pen against the clipboard, something Dylan always remembered hating as a kid. Who knew this one person could bring up bad memories? 

“Any previous injuries?” This was asked very nonchalantly, and by Greying Guy’s posture, it was almost like he wanted to finish this that way he could move on. It’s not like Dylan really cared, he kinda wanted this to be over with as well. So he shook his head, seeming like that was a good enough answer for the two of them. And honestly, he couldn’t remember any previous injuries. Something about trauma? Maybe? He doesn’t really know. His therapist could explain it better. 

“Alright.” With this, Greying guy put down the clipboard and moved over to the examination table, placing his hands gently on either side of Dylan’s neck and, just as gently, applying pressure. 

“How does that feel?” He asked, and Dylan hummed. 

“It’s fine.” the native-american teen answered. To be very honest, it wasn’t fine. His neck felt sore and everything hurt. Greying Guy must have caught that, because he looked up immediately when Dylan said that. 

“I’m going to let you in on a secret kid,” He started, removing his hands from Dylan’s neck and crossing his arms, “Lying about how you feel won’t get you anywhere. You may be the ‘Big Bad Foster Kid’ out there, but here you’re another patient. I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.” For a moment, the teenager imagined that it was his mother talking to him. Lecturing him on his “do it myself” mentality. 

But his mother was dead, so that train of thought quickly evaporated. 

“There really is nothing wrong though--.”

“Bullshit. You’re friend has a concussion. Keep her awake as much as you can during the day.” He said. For good measure, he also shook Rocky awake, “Hello there. I never did introduce myself. My name is Ratchet. Do you know where you are?” 

Rocky blinked. Then blinked again. Then her face lit up tiredly. 

“I’m in Colorado!” She said, snapping her fingers. Ratchet nodded. 

“But where exactly?” He asked. Rocky’s face went blank. After the silence stretched for longer than a minute, Ratchet sighed, shook his head, and turned around again. 

“For you, Dylan, I’m giving you this heating pad for your neck. It should remove any muscle soreness. For Rocky, please monitor her. I’ll go grab some sunglasses that someone left lying around in here.” He picked up his clipboard again and wrote a couple things down. When he was satisfied with that he nodded, “Stay right here, I’ll be back.” 

And so they did. Rocky started to fall asleep again, and Dylan woke her up, again. When Ratchet returned with a heating pad and glasses, he shooed them away. 

“I now have paperwork to do,” He said, “Go to the barracks or something. Preferably  _ away  _ from here. I don’t have time to babysit.” 

And then the two of them were on their own. Dylan pursed his lips before sighing softly. 

“What do you wanna do Rocky?” He asked, and she rubbed her nose. 

“Sleep.” 

Of course. When would he be expecting anything different. He only let out another sigh before shrugging. 

“Let’s see if we can find a place.” He muttered, taking Rocky’s hand. Although she didn’t say anything, he could feel her gratitude. And it was nice, just a little nice, to be appreciated in that way. 

  
  


~.~.~.~.~.~

“That food was fucking horrible.” Sky groaned, holding onto their stomach like it was about to implode. It probably was, Jade mused, with the way they ate. It was like they had never seen food before. 

Instead of saying that, though, she rolled her eyes and shook her head, “Yeah,  _ duh _ . It’s military food, what are you expecting? A gourmet, 5-course meal?” 

“With the amount of money the military gets? Absolutely.” 

“ _ Oh  _ my god,” Jade threw up her hands, “I’m tired of you.” 

“And we’re lost.” Sky added, nodding their head like they just said something profound. Jade huffed angrily, throwing her arms out again, but this time to her side. 

“ _ And  _ we’re lost!” She yelled, seemingly not know that she had just agreed with Sky. She stopped then, blinked, and turned around to face the other teen, “Wait, we’re lost?” 

“Yeah.” Sky said plainly, “We’ve been walking in circles for  _ about  _ 45 minutes now.” 

Jade pursed her lips. 

“Where are we supposed to be going again?”

“Med-bay.” 

The two of them stood in silence for a while. 

“Where is that?” Jade asked finally. Sky pointed straight ahead, past the point where Jade had been blindly turning right for the past 45 minutes. She sighed.

“Ok. Let’s go.” She heard the other teen snicker, and she tried her best to ignore it. 

“Y’know,” Sky started as the two of them started towards the medbay, “You’re taking this a lot better than what I thought.” 

Jade snorted, “No, I’m freaking out, and I’m pissed off that you let this happen, but I’m too tired and annoyed to really process it right now.” The two of them lapsed into silence, something that felt very… awkward. Jade made another soft sound, and Sky scratched their head, and they eventually made it to the med bay. 

“Hey,” said Dylan, waving to them from the dusty ground. Rocky was sat next to him, eyes closed and head resting on his shoulder, “Glad to see you’re still alive Sky.” 

They blinked, “Really?” 

“No.”

Jade snorted, and squatted down next to Rocky to pull her curls gently. Putting her hands through and around the curls to work them in a gentle way. Rocky sighed, and Jade clicked her tongue. 

“How is she?” She asked, looking to Dylan. He shrugged slowly as to not jostle Rocky in her sleep. 

“She’s exhausted. The Doc said she has a concussion--.” 

“And you didn’t tell him she died?” There was a tangible silence when Sky spoke, which came across as dry. Dylan blinked. 

“Why the fuck would I tell that to someone?” He asked. Sky shrugged. 

“Cause it’s true.” They said, matter of factly, “And it’s important for them to know. Rocky hit her head, sure, but that’s only one piece of it.” 

At this point, Jade stood up angrily, holding up her hands as an attempt to stop the conversation, “Sky, I swear to god, if you don’t  _ stop  _ talking about this--.” 

“But--!” 

“No!” The mongolian american whipped around then, pointing angrily towards the hispanic teen, “Stop talking about it! Rocky didn’t die! We’re  _ all _ going to go back home and this poor kid is gonna be fine in about a month!” Sky smiled, and shook their head.

“Jade…” 

“Shut up. Just shut up. Let’s get this over with.” The older kid pushed past the latinx, making her way into the medbay. Dylan let out a low whistle. 

“Sky?” He started, getting the other teens attention. They looked at him with vacant eyes, and he continued, “I know that some freaky shit is happening, and Rocky is a part of that freaky shit, but I--we-- need you to just… not be weird.” There was silence between the two of them, Rocky sifting slightly and sighing as she got comfortable again. Sky’s face looked upset, like they had something they wanted to say, or wanted to explain. They opened their mouth, taking a deep breath in. 

And they were interrupted. 

“Sky! C’mon the doctor guy is getting pissy.” Jade yelled from inside, and Sky closed their mouth again. The vacancy in their eyes left. 

“I’m coming!” They said. They gave Dylan one last look, one that was strangely contemplative, almost like they were arguing with themself, before turning and walking away. 


	5. Taking a Moment: Steps to Take When Shit's Whack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are too slow, but also not normal. And the teens do what they can to cope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> B R U H
> 
> So I'm in college now, lost my passion for writing because NOTHING sounded good, but then, out of nowhere, TMNT came in and fanfic writers said, "Hey, here's some inspiration." So guess who's BACK baby!
> 
> I don't want to abandon this fic, because, in all honesty, this is one of the main things that keeps me going, and something that I often revisit when I want to read through my own writing. I'm not giving up on this fic, and, if you're reading this, I'm glad you haven't given up either.
> 
> ALSO big shout out to SisterSunny who has basically been writing this with me. They're AWESOME and you all should, perhaps, check out their account for more greatly written stories.

This was… the third day they had been in Colorado. 

Dylan was going crazy, and he was slowly driving Jade to insanity as well. Sky was starting to become more and more distant, almost like they were slowly drawing into themself. 

Rocky was mostly sleeping. 

Ratchet, the doctor, kept checking on her. It was almost comedic how he kept shaking his head whenever he saw that Rocky wasn’t getting better. Off handedly, Jade mumbled that it seemed like she was getting _worse_. 

The three of them weren’t allowed to sit in on Rocky’s checkups anymore. 

So today, today is almost routine how they wake up. They were given extra shirts and pants, all of them extras from the basic training they had hosted. They’ll get dressed, brush their teeth, put on their clothes, and force Rocky to go to the mess hall to eat something. 

So that’s why it was surprising when today Prowl and the guy who interrogated Rocky showed up at their door as they were about to leave for breakfast.

“May we speak to Sky?” Prowl asked, face blank and eyes, as always, piercing. Dylan bit his lip and looked to the hispanic american as they pushed their hair from their face. They didn’t seem to be paying attention, or, if they were, they were just ignoring the situation. 

“Can we come?” Jade asked, crossing her arms. Prowl shook his head. 

“Just Sky.” The other guy stated, smiling easily. Dylan noticed that he was wearing sunglasses indoors. Sky continued to ignore them. 

“What if they don’t want to go?” Jade asked, and Prowl shook his head. 

“I don’t have time to argue with you, so I won’t.” He pointedly marched past her, and put a heavy hand onto Sky’s shoulder, “Come along now.” 

“Wait--!”

“Where’s Sky going?”

“You can’t--!”

“Hey,” Sunglasses smiled in a way that made Dylan and Jade’s protests die on their lips, “We’ll see y’all around.” 

And then they left. Escorting Sky in between them. 

“Where’s Sky going?” Rocky asked again, softer this time. Jade huffed, shook her head, and quickly put her hair up in a ponytail. 

“Whatever.” She snarled, leaving the room as well. Dylan didn’t try to stop her. He was too tired at that point. Rocky blinked at him. 

“What’s going on?” She asked, and the native american teen couldn’t help but shake his head. 

“I don’t know kiddo,” He mumbled, “I really don’t.” 

They stayed in the room in silence for a while longer, before deciding to go and get breakfast anyways.

~.~.~.~.~

It was now late afternoon, and Sky was not back. 

Rocky was more awake now, and she and Jade were sitting next to each other under a tree, picking grass and halfheartedly throwing it at each other. Dylan was laying down on the right of Jade, staring blankly up to the sky. 

He should've fought more to keep them safe.

He wasn't the oldest, but everyone still looks up to him in their own way. Sky was new, and weird, and told the group that Rocky died, but they were still a part of the family. He had a duty to protect them. He  _ had _ to protect them. It felt like he needed to. And he let them down. He let Jade down. And poor Rocky's still confused as to where Sky is and if they're coming back. 

This is his fault. 

Right then, Jade dropped some grass on him, effectively cutting off the rest of his spiraling thoughts. He sat up quickly, trying to get the grass off his face as Rocky giggled softly in the background. 

"Dude, we can hear you thinking from here." Jade said with a soft smile, "Stop that." 

"Yeah!" Now it was Rocky's turn to join in, "It's not healthy to think too hard about things you can't control." 

Dylan didn't say anything after that, just blinked slightly. Jade sighed, and got up, stretching slightly.

“Alright, we’re breaking out of here.”

Dylan blinked, shook his head quickly, and then looked up to Jade. 

“We’re  _ what _ ?” 

“Breaking out,” Jade said again, “You’re moping, I’m bored, and Rocky has been feeling better. We’re also in  _ Colorado _ , like, let’s go on a joyride.” Rocky got up immediately, smiling as she did so. Dylan did not. 

“No!” He yelled, standing as well, “There’s no-! I can’t-! Jade!” 

The asian teen only stuck out her tongue as she grabbed Rocky’s hand and walked away. Dylan was quick to follow, angrily fuming behind them. 

“How are we even going to find a  _ car? _ ” He hissed, “We also have to find keys. Did you think of that? And who’s  _ driving _ -?”

Jade whipped around then, putting her hand over his mouth. After standing like this for nearly a minute, she released her hand, and continued walking. 

“Here,” She said, pointing to a bright yellow Lamborghini, “There’s a car. You can hot wire it, I’ll pick the lock.” 

“Do you want any more help?” Rocky asked, tilting her head. Jade shook her head. 

“Just sit and watch kiddo. We got it.” She said, squeezing the other teens hand gently and then letting go. Out of the corner of Dylan’s eye, he briefly saw Rocky’s eyes turn a strange color, and her face hardened slightly, like she was offended that she was being told to sit this one out. 

But, once he noticed it was there, it was gone again, and Rocky was blinking and nodding her head blankly. 

~.~.~.~.~

“Where are you from Sky?” 

At this point, the latinix was starting to feel… uncomfortable. Very much so. They rubbed the palms of their hands against their pants, trying to wipe off the almost obsessive amount of sweat from them. This was Glasses (They now know his name is Jazz, but Sky really doesn’t feel comfortable being that informal with them. At all), and he was deadly serious. His face was set in a firm line, unlike when he was trying his best to get answers from Rocky. 

He was almost scary like this. 

“I was born in Mexico.” They said. Prowl, who had been standing in the back of the room, narrowed his eyes. 

“You did not answer the question.” He stated, “Where are you from?” 

Sky bit the inside of their cheek. 

“I lived in Nevada.” They answered. Jazz nodded. 

“Where?” 

They didn’t answer. Prowl sighed. 

“Did your parents work for Sector Seven?” He asked. Sky took in a sharp breath, not sure if it was their reaction to the name or not. Although they didn’t say anything, Prowl and Jazz didn’t need a conformation. 

Their body language said it all. 

~.~.~.~.~

This was becoming an increasingly bad idea. 

Jade had broken in successfully, getting Rocky in the car and then allowing Dylan to get behind the wheel. From there, they had been sitting for almost 20 minutes. Waiting. Because Dylan was getting more and more lost. 

“I thought you were taught how to do this?” Jade asked from the backseat. Dylan huffed, and tossed the wires away from him to sit up. 

“It’s been a  _ really  _ long time since I’ve done this,  _ Jade _ . Thought you would understand that!” He hissed. From his side, Rocky leaned over to see what he had just abandoned. Jade just scoffed from the back. 

“Well let me do it then.” 

“No! Like I’d risk you fucking up a  _ brand new  _ lambo-!”

“I wouldn’t fuck it up!” 

Unbeknownst to them, Rocky had basically leaned down into area Dylan had once occupied. She looked at the many different wires, criss crossing with one another, and hummed gently. 

Now climbing over the seat, she settled on the floor of the driver’s side, not really listening to the two older teens bickering anymore. She tilted her head, lips pursed, and then reached out gently. In the very forefront of her head, she could swear she heard something say “be gentle, he’s irritated”. Who, she couldn’t say. 

So she was gentle, moving one wire than the next. Listening to what the voice told her to do. Place that plack one there, then the green one here. Then grab the blue and the red one and place them on opposites. Be gentle. Be nice. Whisper a lullaby while you’re working, something he’ll recognise. Now take those two wires, the one’s that’ll actually start him, bring them together and- there. The ignition jumped, and the engine started to rumble. This effectively cut both Dylan and Jade off, having looked down to see where Rocky was. 

“Did you do that?” Dylan asked, watching the younger teen climb back into the passenger seat. Rocky shrugged. 

“It wasn’t like it was hard.” She stated, “Let’s go! I wanna get some  _ real  _ food!” 

Both Dylan and Jade had more questions, the biggest one being “how in the fresh hell did you manage to achieve what we  _ couldn’t _ ”, but they, too, wanted some real food. 

So Dylan closed his door and put the car in drive.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Sky’s interrogation was interrupted by a red head and a blond angrily kicking in the doors. 

Or, well, the  _ blond _ was angry. The red head seemed more mildly impressed. Before Prowl could order them out, the blond slammed his hands down on the table directly in front of Sky. 

“‘Ey man! What’s your  _ problem _ -!” 

“You,” The blond growled out, “There’s three more of you aren’t there?” Sky blinked at him, face twisted in confusion. 

“Yeah? Wait, like three more humans?” They asked, which caused the four men in the room to look at them, “Yeah, there’s me, Jade, Rocky, and Dylan.” Prowl tilted his head and then turned his attention to the other two. 

“What’s going on?” He asked, voice serious. The red head smiled and patted the blond on the shoulder. 

“The teens are going on a joyride.” He stated, tilting his head towards the blond. Glasses leaned forwards slightly, trying to understand what those words meant, and then his mouth formed in an “o” shape.

"We gotta stop them." The african American man stated, standing up quickly. Prowl threw his hands up in agitation. 

"We're in the middle of something!" He yelled, he shot Sky a look as they were standing, one that said that they needed to sit before he made them. They didn't.

"And  _ they _ are going to do something stupid. We gotta call Red-.” 

Sky, standing in the middle of all this, couldn’t help but feel amused at how frantic the four adults in the room were. How they, in standing here, were the calmest thing in the room. 

“Why don’t we get them?” They asked as the four of them were bickering. Blondie blinked to them, and Prowl let out a long sigh through his nose. 

“Fine.” He hissed out, “Let’s go get them, and then we can take them back to Wyoming. I think they’ve overstayed their welcome.” Sky smiled to the man, and walked around the table to pat his arm. 

“There, that wasn’t hard.” They could feel themself nearing a new mood again, and it was making their head spin in the strangest way. Prowl narrowed his eyes to them, and Glasses tilted his head just slightly. 

Quickly though, their mood shifted just slightly to the right, and their head was done spinning. So they opened the door and turned around, walking backwards out of them. 

“Are you guys comin’ or what?” They asked, smiling. Slowly, very slowly, the four men followed. And the group of them were out the door. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk why part of it is indented and part of it isn't. that's just how it be i suppose. 
> 
> please comment if you have a moment! thank you and gn!


	6. Joyride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The teens have some fun :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> >:3 feelin' chaotic as of late. 
> 
> Also! I'm slowly coming back to really writing this fic? I'm hoping to ride this wave for as long as it'll last before I get burnt out due to school and stress SO!   
> (Also, I fucked up the line breaks this chapter but im... too tired to even attempt to fix *that*)
> 
> Enjoy

Oh, Rocky was having the time of her  _ life _ . 

Dylan was a very safe driver, and, somewhere, in the back of her head, Rocky couldn’t help but think that he was just being  _ allowed  _ to drive. She didn’t think much past that, and, really, Dylan and Jade were making it hard. 

“Go  _ faster!”  _ Jade yelled, laughing loudly as Dylan drove down the highway. He shook his head. 

“I don’t have my license and this is  _ not  _ my car. I really don’t want to go to jail today thank you.” Dylan stated, reaching back to push Jade into her seat. She shot him a pout, and Rocky giggled slightly. 

“So,” Dylan started, tapping against the wheel softly, “Where to?” Jade hummed, tapping her chin in thought before smiling. 

“Oh! Why don’t we go to a mall!” She exclaimed, flipping her black hair over her shoulder, “Or, like, go get food! I’m kinda craving chicken…” 

“Fine food.” Dylan interrupted, not paying attention to Jade anymore, “What about you Rocky? What do you wanna do?” Rocky hummed, biting the inside of her cheeks in thought. 

“I dunno…” She mumbled, “Maybe get something sweet? I like sweet things.” She blinked a couple of times, and Jade thought it was strange how she said it. Like she was reminding herself of what she liked and what she didn’t like. The older teen didn’t think much of it though, and Dylan hummed in reply. 

“So mall, sweets, then actual food.” He said, mostly to himself. Rocky laughed softly at that. 

“Shouldn’t be the other way around? Mall, actual food,  _ then  _ sweets?” When Dylan didn’t respond to her, she let out a loud laugh. 

It was funny, how to the smallest things will unite a group together. The three of them were close, but never so close as to do… this. To take a joyride out into Colorado just because. 

So the drive all the way to a mall, it was a strip mall, and it was easy for them to pull into a parking spot and then allowing Rocky to stop the car. Before parting, she patted the hood, and whispered something to it. Jade raised an eyebrow at her. Dylan didn’t pay attention. 

“What do we want to do here?” He asked, looking around at all the different shops along the mall. Jade hummed in thought. 

“Well, let’s see if there’s a chocolate place somewhere nearby.” She stopped then, and turned to look at Rocky, who was still patting the roof of the car softly. Jade cleared her throat, which forced the african american teen to look up. Once the older teen had her attention, she asked, “How does that sound Rocky-girl?” 

“That’s fine.” She responded, “Just as long as we don’t bring any food or drink in him. Unless it’s water. Water’s fine with him.” Jade hummed, and Dylan blinked blankly before mumbling out an “ok”. 

So Jade grabbed Rocky’s arm, and Dylan grabbed Jade’s wrist, and they pulled the youngest along on their quest to make the most of their time in Colorado. 

___________________________________________________________________________

_ ::Sunny? Are you ok?::  _

For once, Sideswipe was glad for the com links. Their “twin telepathy” could get them far, but it was solely emotion based, and now that Sunstreaker’s com was working again, they were able to talk. 

_ ::Don’t call me that.:: _

_ ::Didn’t give me an answer!:: _

There was a very long pause, before Sunstreaker finally answered,  _ ::The african american girl is strange.:: _

Sideswipe made a low buzzing sound,  _ ::Strange how?::  _

_ ::She  _ knows _ Sides,:: _ Sunstreaker mumbled over the com,  _ ::She knows what I am. The other two don’t. She… she’s listening to me and responding.::  _

Sideswipe didn’t respond to that. How could he? His brother just went through some freaky shit and he couldn’t even begin to imagine what that’s like. 

So, instead, he asked,  _ ::Where are you right now?:: _ to which his brother sent back a location ping. 

So Sideswipe took that ping and forwarded it to Prowl without another word. 

______________________________________________________________________

They were on their way back to the bright yellow car when Rocky got bad again. 

She clutched her head, and closed her eyes tightly, and took a deep breath. A breath so deep that she had to stop in the middle of the road. Jade gasped, and Dylan cursed softly under his breath. 

“Rocky!” Dylan hissed, grabbing her arm and pulling her forward, “What the hell?” 

“Why did you stop?” Jade asked, and Rocky took another shaky breath. 

“It’s…” She stopped, pressing her lips together tightly, “It’s way too load and I can’t-.” 

“Ok,” Jade said softly, “It’s ok! Let’s get back to the car.” She pulled on Rocky’s arm, and the younger teen stepped forward. Dylan took her other arm, mumbling something low under his breath. Eventually, Jade whispered, “Go open the door” to Dylan, who let go of Rocky’s arm to go do so. 

But then the door doesn’t open. And then the car just  _ starts _ , and then it rolls forwards, and then back, and Dylan can’t begin to understand what the fuck is going on anymore. So he yells, startled and scared, which causes Jade to look up from where she’s talking to Rocky to yell a vague profanity back. 

“What the hell!” She screamed, and Rocky ran to the car and placed her hands on the hood of it. It moves forward, and she took a half step back. Dylan stopped paying attention to turn to Jade, who’s snapping right in front of his face. 

“What’s going on!?” She exclaimed, and he threw his hands up in a placeating manner. 

“You act like I know!” The native american screamed back. That's when Rocky's head shot up, and she leveled the two older teens with a glare. 

"Shut  _ up _ !" This not only froze the two, but forced them to freeze where they were. Rocky's eyes looked angry, and burned a bright green. 

Jade blinked. 

_ Green? _

"It's too late anyways," she muttered, "Joyrides over." Before Jade could ask what she meant by that, at least five other bright colored cars (and a  _ cop _ holy shit) pulled into the parking lot. Out of the cop car stepped Prowl and Sky, who smiled to them. 

"You guys have fun?" They asked. Jade and Dylan allowed for their faces to fall into an angry glare. Rocky rolled her eyes, before shutting them tight again. She took a deep breath. 

"If the goal was to alert us that you wished to leave, congratulations. You did exactly that." Prowl growled, grabbing Jade and Dylan's arms tightly, "You three are leaving tonight." 

"What about Sky?" Dylan yelled incredulously. Sunglasses suddenly appeared beside him, and gave a nonchalant shrug. 

"What about them?" He asked, smiling as he did so. Dylan noted that it wasn't a pleasant smile, and attempted to move forwards. Prowl pulled him back. 

Rocky, now nauseous, decided that she needed to sit down. She couldn't remember how at the moment. In the background she heard something whisper. Louder still was a yell. Someone was shouting to move out. Then another, lighter voice laughed like there was nothing wrong. Then another voice called her name. 

She put her head on the hood. It was warm against her skin. Softly, she patted it. 

"I'm sorry." She muttered, "I'm sorry, please give me a moment." Although he didn't  _ say  _ anything (because really, he couldn't), the african american teen felt the car hum softly underneath her forehead. She took in one deep breath. Then another. 

Suddenly, someone tapped her shoulder, which forced her to look up. Standing there was a guy she almost vaguely remembered with bright red hair. He had freckles, and tan skin, and next to him was a copy (their  _ twins,  _ someone supplied in the back of her mind, but she elected to ignore that). Red-head smiled. 

“Hey,” He said, all smiles, “You remember me?” She blinked at him, and tilted her head. A moment, she needed one moment.

“Sideswipe?” She asked, squinting to him. The teen then looked down at the car she was laying on top of, and let out a soft, “Sunstreaker?” 

The car stopped humming. 

Sideswipe pulled her up, solid hands on her shoulders forcing her to look to him. Somewhere in the background, she heard Dylan yell something, and Jade screamed something to Sky most likely. Just as she was turning to look, Sideswipe snapped his fingers in front of her eyes and asked, “Are you ok?” 

“I feel sick.” She answered plainly, placing her hands on  _ his  _ shoulders to push him away, “I feel bad. Please don’t-.”

“Hey, hey hold on.” Sideswipe mumbled, casting a brief look to his clone ( _ Sunstreaker _ , the voice supplied, and honestly, Rocky hated how loud it was.  _ Shut up _ , she said in response. The voice didn’t respond again), “Let me walk you back to my car, ok? We’ll have Ratchet take a look at you.” Rocky needed another moment to remember. Ratchet is the doctor. The doctor that’s been treating her. Did she ever tell him that she died-?

(In the back of her head, a part of her, the part that wasn’t concussed and fully aware of the situation, screamed for her to  _ get a grip _ already. She never died. She just had a really bad concussion. But the other part, the part that was afraid because she kept  _ feeling  _ things and  _ hearing  _ things and  _ seeing  _ things couldn’t listen. Slightly, she worried if a part of her will ever be the same. If her normal self will ever see the light of day again. She didn’t know, and the sane part of her yelled for her to  _ get a grip _ , and the less sane, more alien part screamed that the two men in front of her were unnatural. She was caught in the middle of two extremes, and she didn’t know what to do.) 

“-ey, HEY! Rocky?” Red head, Sideswipe (that’s not Sideswipe, and that’s not  _ Sunstreaker _ -) yelled, shaking her back to reality. She never knew that her breath had quickened, and that she had tears in her eyes. She shook her head. 

“No-.” She mumbled, “You’re not  _ real _ , you  _ can’t  _ be.” 

Sunstreaker (nononononono _ no _ -) raised an eyebrow to her, “We  _ are. _ This is us Rocky. Let’s get you to the car.” He moves to put a hand on her shoulder, something grounding, but it  _ wasn’t,  _ because they weren’t, and she couldn’t explain it. 

So she screamed and turned and ran. 

And there, in the background, someone was yelling her name, and the more sane part of herself yelled right with them. 

But the alien, the one that was slowly making its home in  _ her  _ head, screamed along with her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *takes a sip of my coffee* So yeah.
> 
> please feel free to leave kudos and a lil comment if you're feeling feisty! I turned off the moderator thing for the comments, cause it was... a Pain to keep up on so now they'll just, be up! and then I'll see them and everyone will be happy.


	7. Back to the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are fine. They guess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *slam dunks this into ao3*
> 
> I AM NOW like, multiple chapters ahead in terms of writing this. Which means updates are probably gonna be more frequent. For all those who are still following this like, holy shit thank you. There's still so much for me to write on in this story in particular. can't wait to see where this takes me honestly! 
> 
> that being said... this is for u

They’re home. 

It took a moment, what between Rocky having a panic attack as the military people where trying to remove them from the mall (which caused so much of a scene, the normal cops got involved), to the four of them sitting down in the med bay being yelled at, the whole process took about a day and a half. 

But now, standing in a borrowed uniform, Jade couldn’t help but feel a little melancholic. The trio had to say bye to Sky, who was being forced to stay. No one explained why, and Rocky got a  _ look  _ on their face. One that resembled Sky’s when they wanted to say something, but  _ wouldn’t _ . 

Jade brushed it off, and walked up to the door, hand in hand with Dylan and Rocky. Once there, Rocky hummed, and tilted her head at it. 

“Who’s knocking?” She asked, looking between Jade and Dylan. Dylan looked to Jade, and Jade groaned. 

“Cool, leave me with the hardest part.” The mongolian american muttered, throwing her hair over her shoulder. She let go of both of their hands, and raised her fist to knock. Right then, Anna opened the door quickly, and rolled her eyes. 

“So you’re back.” She said, flipping her bobbed hair. Dylan rolled his eyes back to her. 

“Why so sad?” He asked, “Expecting us to stay?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Let us in Anna,” Jade stated, “Rocky has a concussion, and I’m just tired.” Their guardian looked over each of them slowly, like she was trying to see what she would gain from allowing them into the house, before rolling her eyes and stepping aside.

The house hadn’t changed, honestly, Jade wasn’t sure if it was supposed to. A group of kids ran past them as the trio entered, one of the caretakers was watching the TV with another group. One of the teenaged kids sat at the kitchen table and typed away at a computer while also digging through a family sized bag of Cheetos. Jade took a deep breath in, and then another one out. 

“I’m gonna take Rocky to bed.” The mongolian-american teen then said, turning around to grab Rocky’s arm. The african-american girl didn’t even protest. She just rubbed her eyes slowly and yawned. Anna rolled her eyes and shrugged. As she was walking away, she snapped her fingers together a couple of times. 

“Oh right. Rocky you got mail.” She said, after which, she continued to walk further into the house. She continued to mutter something under her breath, but what it was, the trio could care less about. Dylan rolled his shoulders, face slightly twisted due to some soreness, before running a hand through his hair. 

“I’m gonna go take a shower and go to bed.” He stated, “I fucking  _ hate  _ long drives.” With that, he had successfully disappeared up the stairs. This left only Jade and Rocky together. 

“Ok,” Jade muttered after a moment of silence, “Cool.” She then turned her attention back to Rocky, who seemed to be asleep while standing up, and the older teen shook her head. 

The trip up to Rocky’s room was perilous to say the least. There were many stray toys that the other kids would leave on the stairs (legos being a painful example. And really, who was the asshole who left  _ those  _ on the stairs? That’s just hitting new levels of disrespect). To add to this, Rocky’s room was also a mess, not having been cleaned since the group had left. In order to ensure that Rocky would not fall over while standing there, Jade put up her hair, sat Rocky down in her desk chair, and got to work. She didn’t do much to  _ clean  _ per say, but she did manage to clear Rocky’s bed (which, how that girl ever  _ slept  _ in it Jade will never know). She then managed to get Rocky to lay  _ down  _ in her bed, before taking off the girl’s shoes and throwing them into her closet. 

With all that done, Jade finally left Rocky’s room, running directly into Dylan, who was semi-fresh out of the shower. He had changed his clothes from the borrowed army training uniforms to a band t-shirt and sweats. His pitch black hair was still a little wet from his shower. He held out a hand to steady her, which Jade gratefully accepted. 

“Hey,” He started, smiling softly to her, “How are you?” 

Jade snorted, “You’re just  _ now  _ asking this?” She muttered, taking her hair down and allowing it to fall anyway it wanted (mostly in her face). Dylan laughed lightly. 

“Forgive me if I was a little preoccupied with Rocky and Sky drama while we were away to ask the important questions.” He retorted. He studied her a bit, his smile fading as he did so, and said, “But really, you look dead on your feet. Why don’t you go to bed?” 

“I still gotta get Rocky’s mail.” Jade said. 

“I’ll go get it.” Dylan replied. Jade ran her hands down her face. 

“But I also gotta make sure she doesn’t fall into a  _ coma _ .” She said, her voice showing her desperation. Dylan gave her a flat look. 

“This just sounds like you making up excuses to not take care of yourself.” He stated matter-of-factly. Jade groaned, and leaned her head against his shoulder. 

“You don’t mind?” She asked softly. Dylan sighed, reaching up one of his hands and patting her head just as softly. 

“No.” He said with a smile, “I really don’t. Now go rest.” 

And Jade, as much as she was stubborn, she was also tired. So she smiled to Dylan, her own way of saying “thanks”, before turning and walking to her room. 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Rocky woke up with a start. 

Truth be told, everything has been…  _ fuzzy _ these past few hours in a way she couldn’t possibly describe. The only thing she could do is roll over and stare at her ceiling while blindly groping for her phone that lay somewhere among the covers. Once the phone was found, she turned it on, saw that the time was 9:50 AM, and turned it off before preparing to go back to sleep-. 

Wait.

Rocky sat all the way up, phone in her hands as she turned her phone on again,  _ just _ to be sure she read her clock right. When the time came up on her lock screen, a proud and sure 9:5 _ 1 _ AM, Rocky wheezed out a soft scream, before throwing the covers off of her. 

When she ran into her bathroom, She had barely caught sight of herself in the mirror, too preoccupied with trying to brush her teeth and take a shower at the same time. Once she had completed those two tasks, she ran back into her room and threw on some clothes. 

In the end, she was wearing a bright yellow hoodie with no shirt on underneath, a pair of black sweatpants that were slowly ripping at the knees due to years of wear and tear, and grabbed a black pair of shoes from her closet. After gathering what little things she needed for school, she opened the door. 

Almost colliding with a surprised Jade. 

“Hey!” The older teen exclaimed, “Yo, what’s the rush for?” She asked, smiling slightly at Rocky’s nervousness. Rocky only let out a huff. 

“School!” She yelled back, “Bro, I missed like, two periods at this point!” When Rocky started to walk away again, Jade put her hand to the younger teens chest, and pushed her back. Rocky tilted her head at the other. 

“You’re not going to school.” Jade said firmly, “You have a concussion, remember?” 

Truthfully, Rocky did  _ not  _ remember. She didn’t remember hardly at  _ all _ . She remembers walking out with her laptop, about to say something to Anna, before it was just blank space. She remembers waking up once and probably having a conversation with someone about  _ something _ , before it was blank. She remembers being in Colorado, she remembers the beginning of the joyride they had. 

But that was pretty much it. 

Thankfully, Rocky’s lack of communication about what she does and does not remember seemed to answer Jade’s question, so the mogolian american teen only sighed, in an almost defeated manner, and pushed Rocky back into her room while asking, “Did you see you letters yet?” 

The african american teen had  _ not _ , and immediately, her attention was drawn to the letters that lay in the neatest pile on top of her desk. She gasped. 

“Oh my god,” She mumbled out, “Are these all-?” 

“From the sis? I have yet to find out.” Jade answered, sitting on the desk chair and swiveling it around, “I don’t make a habit to open other people’s mail.” Rocky only rolled her eyes in response to that, and snagged the pile of letters off of the desk. She smiled slightly. 

“Most of these are post cards.” She muttered, Placing those to the side to look at later. The couple of letters that she did receive she opened while Jade typed away onto her phone. 

The letters themselves were mostly small details about her sister's life, which made Rocky smile. After another moment of silence, Rocky laughed lightly. 

“Jade,” She started, “The youngest sis is now on a dance team.” Jade snorted, putting her phone away. 

“Deadass?” She asked, and Rocky nodded. 

“Yeah.” The two were silent once again, Rocky having put down the letter she was currently reading to stare at the wall. 

“Jade,” The younger teen said suddenly, “Are you ok?” Jade shrugged, obviously tired and weary, something that she shouldn’t have to be for only being 17. Rocky hummed. 

“Can I go to school tomorrow?” She asked, now looking down again to open the next letter. Jade sighed, leaning back in the desk chair. 

“Sure.” The older teen replied, and the rest of the day was fairly silent from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please! feel free to leave a like, a comment would also be stellar, I like hearing people's thoughts lol its fun


	8. A Look at Things From Sky's Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A break. Only to talk about Sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ha. 
> 
> college sucks, but to everyone who reads this! This work will never be abandoned. I just like being a couple of chapters ahead, so I take time to write and then publish another chapter.

They actually had a pleasant childhood. 

They were born in Mexico and immigrated with their mom and their dad at a very young age. They lived in Texas for a while, probably about 5 years, before their parents got a job working as scientists for a government agency. Don’t ask them what it is, they don’t know, they’re 5. All they knew was that their family had to move to Nevada. 

So life was ok for another few months or so. 

Then their dad died. 

Then their mom grew frantic. 

The government facility, the agency itself, slowly became known to Sky, who was given a badge and was told to sit down and be quiet. Don’t talk, don’t ask any questions, Mama has to work. Let her work. 

For a while, that worked, and Sky sat and didn’t say anything. But part of their nature, as being the child of two scientists, is to be curious. And so, one day after finishing homework, they packed up their bag, threw it over their shoulders, and started walking. 

Really, the inside of a base is fairly boring, There’s nothing but old pipes, leaky ceilings, and people rushing about. A couple of them smiled as they walked past, and Sky would smile back. But they were on a mission, so naturally, the mexican-american kid didn’t stick around long. 

Eventually, they stumbled across a large room. Almost too large, that was home to a  _ cube. _ They tilted their head at the sight of it, something within them wanting to reach out and touch it. Something felt so  _ lonely _ , so  _ hurt _ . 

They blinked back tears, and when they were collected to go home, they told their Mama. How they found the room with the giant cube, and how the cube seemed so lonely and sad. Their mother didn’t say anything. That was a common place now, so Sky continued to talk about their day, about the new things they noticed in the base. The two of them stopped to In and Out for dinner, Sky ate theirs in the car, while their mother slowly sipped on the sprite she got. 

The evening was normal. The  _ night  _ was normal. 

And then, at 11:00, their mother woke them up and told them to put on some shoes. And Sky is a good kid, so they quickly did as they’re told, and their mother just as quickly got them into the car. The two of them drove in silence, Sky watching as the dark landscape sped past them. 

Before they could even ask where they were going, their mother pulled into the security check for the base and drove in. She parked, she told Sky to get out. They did. 

The two of them continued walking until they got to the Cube Room (that’s what Sky started calling it. They think it’s catchy). Their mother pulled them up the stairs, taking them almost all the way to the top before stopping them and pulling out her phone. 

“Touch it.” She said, looking between her phone and Sky. Sky blinked, confused. 

“You told me not to touch  _ anything _ -.” 

“Shut up!” Their mama yelled, taking a hand and scratching at her hair maniacally, “Just… do what Mami says, and touch it.” 

And Sky had their doubts, but they trusted their mother, and they touched the cube. 

To best describe how everything felt for a moment, Sky could easily say it was like being lit on fire, slowly and quickly, before it being extinguished. In the present, they can’t remember much of the conversation that they and what they  _ now  _ know as the Allspark had. They just remember the vaguest of feelings. Of being considered as an almost “systems backup”. Of being so  _ lonely  _ it made their knees buckle, and their heart hurt. But then they felt warm, an almost completion. 

And they remember the Allspark almost smiling at them, and saying how they were a bit confused right now, but later things will start to make sense. The Allspark then said something akin to “goodnight”, but it was spoken in a language that Sky wasn’t entirely familiar with. 

When they finally moved away from the Allspark, their mother was right there, asking a million and one questions. But they didn’t hear her. 

They were sad. 

It took a couple more years of being with their mother for them to realize that things were starting to get bad. Their mother demanded more, and more, and more. When they came out as being non-binary, their mother looked them over, muttered something, and then asked, “Is it because of touching that alien shit? Is that why?” 

There were tests, and hypothesis’, and more tests. And then… she was gone. 

Just vanished. 

Leaving Sky alone. And, distantly, some part of them said that it wasn’t the first time they’ve been lonely, and it won’t be the last time. 

CPS found them at home, sitting at the kitchen table doing homework. The only reason why they had come was because the power, the water, and the heating had been turned off. Sky was in the system almost immediately. And, just as immediately, they were moved from home to home because they were weird. Needles had always freaked them out, but now they would fight, bite and kick every time they had to go to the doctors. 

So they moved and they moved and they moved until they ended up in Wyoming. 

And then the Allspark woke  _ up.  _

That feeling is something Sky can remember vividly. It’s what got them the reputation of being the “weird kid” in the new house. Suddenly everything was  _ screaming  _ at them. Loud, too loud, almost  _ deafening.  _ It was so disorienting, they dropped their box of knick-knacks and dropped to the floor. They didn’t have much control after that, but their roommate told them they were screaming for about 10 minutes. 

And, when those ten minutes were up, everything stopped, all at once, and there was that presence again. Smiling at them, almost waving. 

They just grabbed their box and finished unpacking. 

That night, they fell asleep, and dreamed of being alone in a room. The room was large, and bright, but it wasn’t white. They could just… see. They looked around a bit. 

“Hello?” 

_ ::Hello?::  _ It wasn’t exactly a voice, it wasn’t even really  _ spoken, _ more like thinking text. Sky blinked, confused. 

“Where are we?” They asked. The presence shrugged, which was strange, because Sky couldn’t  _ see  _ it shrug. 

_ ::I think… this is just in your head.::  _

“Why are you guessing?” Sky asked it. It shrugged again. 

_ ::I really don’t know anything.::  _

Sky hummed, and looked around a bit more. After staring into literal nothingness, they finally looked back in front of them, and asked, “Am I crazy?” 

The presence snorted,  _ ::No.:: _

Sky frowned, “Are you another person in my head then?” 

_ ::Nah, we’re the same person. We haven’t had time to really  _ mesh _ yet.:: _

Sky raised an eyebrow at that. 

“So, you’re telling me that you’re me, but also  _ not  _ me, but eventually you will  _ also  _ be me?” 

The presence nodded. 

_ ::Yeah. Pretty much.::  _

And then, Sky woke up. 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~

Meeting Jade, Dylan and Rocky was weird. Not because it was awkward, but because the four of them never really officially…  _ met. _

Sky knew  _ of  _ them. They were the crowd favorite among the younger kids, and Rocky especially tended to be in trouble to most with Anna. The three of them had known each other the longest, which had gotten to family levels of kinship that they had. 

So yes, Sky knew  _ of  _ the trio, but had yet to interact with any of them. 

Until that faithful day, driving through the rez to Crux. 

Crux had been their idea.  _ Why _ Crux they couldn’t tell you, but something was screaming for them in  _ that  _ direction, and they knew something was on the other side of the rez, so why not drive through it real quick. See what’s going on. Thankfully, the drive did not disappoint, and there it was. 

A data pillar. 

That Rocky  _ touched. _

While, yes, dangerous, some part of their brain supplied that she would live through it, because her brain could file everything away. Somehow. Sky hummed, and didn’t think very much of it. They hadn’t been thinking too much of anything. 

So when these cars ( _ Autobots. They’re good. Promise)  _ show up out of nowhere, people are talking left and right and around them about everything. They realized something. 

This whole thing was because of them. 

They never really  _ intended  _ to hide from the government (well, the Allspark did. It didn’t like the government, and, while not omnipotent, having a backup saved somewhere safe was smart, just in case something went south. Which it did), but it had happened anyways. So they went to voice that very thought when they were cut off. 

_ ::Bad!:: _ said The Presence  _ ::Really bad! That’s a Decepticon!:: _ While it was freaking out, Dylan muttered something while Rocky stepped out of the house. Before Sky could say anything, something exploded. Once, farther away, and then twice. They stood up, cars peeling away and out of sight. 

“Rocky!” This was Dylan, and how Sky heard him over the ringing in their ears they’ll never know, but it still prompted them to look up and over across the large field to see Rocky lying there, totally limp. 

_ ::Oh. She’s dead::  _ It thought. And Sky had found themself repeating that same phrase while standing. And even more so as they ran across the field. And even  _ more  _ as they picked up Rocky’s head. Dylan shouted something again, but they weren’t very concerned about that. 

“Hey Rocky,” They muttered, “This is gonna suck for you, mostly because I gotta jump start your  _ brain _ , but it’ll be fine. Promise it’ll be fine.” 

The next five minutes could only be described as… bizarre. Sky had never come in contact with a data pillar before, but they weren’t as… present. Just  _ barely  _ aware of what’s happening, and  _ this  _ data pillar knew that the person it chose was either dead, or very close. So the three (two and a half? Things were getting more and more muddled the longer this went on) had a very calm, multilingual conversation, that ended with the pillar confirming in almost 18 different languages that it can wake up Rocky. 

It… didn’t, but when Sky opened their eyes again, the wound on Rocky’s head was gone, and she was breathing, so they called it a win anyways. 

But, and this was important, Rocky had  _ died _ , and the  _ pillar _ brought it back to life. Not Sky, not the Allspark. The Pillar. 

In their dreams, Sky asked The Presence, “Do you think Rocky and The Pillar are going to be fine like you and I?” 

_ ::They will either be fine or Rocky will go crazy.::  _

“She also has a concussion now. Her brain’s outta whack.” 

_ ::She  _ died _. Her brain’s getting used to her body.::  _

There was silence between the two. 

“Are the ‘Bots gonna notice?” 

_ ::Her?::  _

“No. Me.” 

Silence again, before The Presence sighed and shrugged tiredly. 

_ ::I dunno. And I’m tired of running. I feel like I’m always  _ running  _ from something. But I’m not. Not really. Because I’m  _ you. _ You never ran from much huh? Just kinda… let things happen::  _

Sky didn’t respond, because they didn’t know what to say. The Presence rolled its eyes. 

_ ::Yeah kinda like how this is just…  _ happening _. Goodnight.::  _

Sky didn’t dream much after that. And they were actually the first to wake up when the group arrived to Colorado. 

A few days later, the Autobots found out. 

And they never got to fully unpack their knickknacks. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tell me what u think! I'm gonna now watch youtube until my class starts.


End file.
